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No public memorial for Imperial Sugar explosion anniversary

Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News A sculpture of hands releasing 14 doves stands at the center of Legacy Park just outside the gate of the Imperial Sugar refinery in Port Wentworth. Each of the doves represents a worker killed during an explosion and fire at the refinery in 2008.

Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News A marker dedicated to each of the 14 workers killed during an explosion and fire at the Imperial Sugar refinery in 2008 encircle Legacy Park.

Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News Oak trees are reflected in one of the 14 markers encirclingImperial Sugar's Legacy Park. Each marker is dedicated to a worker killed during an explosion and fire at the refinery in 2008.

Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News A dedication plaque rests at the base of the sculpture located at the center of Imperial Sugar's Legacy Park.

Workers were sprucing up Legacy Park on Wednesday for Imperial Sugar’s private ceremony today honoring the 14 workers killed and the dozens injured precisely five years ago when fires from combustible dust explosions brought a hellish fury to the banks of the Savannah River.

It will be a low-key, private ceremony at the small park, according to the company, with a laying of a wreath at the memorial, followed by a moment of silence to honor the dead and injured.

“We’re trying to do it along more personal lines,” said Brian Harrison, industrial manager at Imperial Sugar. “We tried to get the mood of our people and what came back was they wanted something more personal.”

But for the first time since 2009, there will be no organized public memorial service to commemorate the anniversary of the tragedy.

The Rev. W. James Nelson, a central organizer of last year’s memorial at Our Lady of Lourdes Church directly across from the Imperial refinery, said he is disappointed a public memorial wasn’t scheduled for the fifth anniversary.

“I don’t know what happened this year,” Nelson said.

The past ceremonies, held at different area churches, largely were organized by the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance under the responsibility of the alliance’s sitting president.

That was Nelson last year, when about 100 people congregated in the Roman Catholic church to pray, sing and listen to testimonials and to offer their memories of those lost or injured in the blast that leveled so much of the refinery.

The theme, as in years past, was “Lest we forget.”

The Rev. George A. Moore Jr. of St. Philip Monumental AME Church assumed the alliance’s presidency Jan. 1 and blamed the inability to organize the fifth-anniversary public memorial on the transition in alliance leadership.

“We just had a changing of the guard and haven’t had the chance to plan anything,” Moore said. “We might just probably have something in our churches rather than having a community effort.”

Moore said those individual memorials might take place as soon as Sunday, but could come later. He was asked if he is disappointed that the string of annual public remembrances of such a monumental community tragedy has been broken five years after the deadly inferno.

“Absolutely,” he said. “It was a terrible tragedy that took place and I am kind of disappointed in that.”

Others, such as surviving victim Cinnegan White, said they are saddened that there will be no public outpouring this year, but also recognize that the world moves on for those people not directly impacted by the disaster.

And the affected families, he said, will always grieve in their own way.

“They might have their own personal memorial or have their own family or friends around,” White said.